I was hoping it would fade within 48 hours, but what a foolish hope that was.
I write, of course, about the towering Scandal of the infinitely racist Harry Reid, whose racism is, in reality, abundantly finite, except in the unscrupulous universe of GOP outrage and metaphysical media whoring; and frankly, what else is there these days?
I, for one, happen to believe we’re all too sensitive about racial insensitivity, in that I also agree with the late great Norman Mailer, who as a Jew regularly denounced the censorship of anti-Semitic speech. He wanted to know if an acquaintance was hostile, he argued, so that he could learn why, and attempt Reason. Suppressing his foe’s hostility only simmered it within and created invisible enemies.
But, that’s the philosophical side of things, whereas Reid’s enemies are interested only in the tactical: The man should be removed from leadership, asserts the virtuous GOPers, because they themselves are such capital fellows who suffer racism not, and, besides, Trent Lott nobly paid the price.
In this comparison they somehow forget to add that that itself was internally tactical: Lott’s removal was a contract hit from above; certain political Mafia powers wanted him gone, and I need not name names.
Nevertheless the GOP has its Scandal, largely because its media co-conspirators find big profit and high ratings from Outrage.
Yesterday morning, squeezed between legitimate news, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” was all abuzz with nothing but and the day’s programming fare remained indistinguishable. The always outraged Prof. Michael Eric Dyson must be on the network’s speed dial; the man is positively ubiquitous in these instances and he never, never winds down.
Again, I had hoped the Sunday morning shows would prove to be Outrage’s final gasp, since they themselves were so outrageously miserable. Liz Cheney, on ABC's "This Week," was the only comic relief. Reid’s remarks were "clearly racist," she bellowed, to which George Will visibly, audibly pushed back with an animated (for Will) sniff and a huff. He knew he was watching his party embarrass itself.
Such as the party’s Leader, the inestimable Michael Steele, who on both “Meet the Press” and “Fox News Sunday” called for Reid’s resignation, having forgotten that, according to the Washington Post, of Dec. 14, 2002: “he was personally upset by U.S. Sen. Trent Lott's praise for Sen. Strom Thurmond and his segregationist past, but said Lott should not be forced to relinquish his leadership position in the Senate.” Oops.
Over in Politico’s “Arena,” one could also masochistically treat oneself to the likes of, say, a Brad Blakeman, former G.W. Bush aide and instigating Florida political terrorist who was OK with, say, an unprovoked war, but finds, say, Harry Reid’s atavistic language to be one political offense too far. Harry “should step down,” wrote the incensed, wounded, racially sensitive Blakeman. After all, “What person in their right mind even has the word ‘negro’ in their vocabulary.” Oh, I don't know, Brad. The United States Census Bureau?
Uplifting, on the other hand, was the Council on Foreign Relations’ Walter Russell Mead, who aggressively countered Blakeman & Co.: “Majority Leader Reid's cretinous private remarks are creepy and disturbing … [but] the GOP outrage is as phony as a three dollar bill and the ‘double standard’ charges don't hold up.”
True enough, yet it’s what Mead added to his analysis that attracted my deeper admiration, which I quote at some length: “[T]he media huff-and-puff over the whole dismal mess is unbearably pointless. This is an anecdote, not a story; can we please get back to the business of the country now? Last time I looked, the deficits were out of control, California is falling into the ocean, the health care system even after 'reform' will be a vast and ever-more unaffordable quagmire, the public schools aren't anywhere near what they ought to be, our infrastructure is aging, unemployment will be in double digits for some time to come, the global economic system is more turbulent than ever, organized terror groups are trying to kill us, and rising powers around the world are flexing their muscles and feeling testosterone highs. And that's just for starters.”
While Mead’s diagnosis was spot on, the prognosis is bleak. We seem to be a nation morbidly obsessed with the frivolous. We deny it; but the networks, through Nielsen, know better. We are, in the title words of one media observer, entertaining ourselves to death.
Calling for an end to this national behavior is equally “unbearably pointless.” Everyone is aware of it, but the addiction holds, and worsens. Perhaps this is merely what a declining empire looks and sounds like.
Reid's remarks
As much as the Republicans would like to think (or pretend, or proclaim) differently, Harry Reid's unfortunately worded remarks were more a spot-on assessment of the American voting public than a racially-motivated assessment of Barack Obama. While using the word "negro" is certainly indicative of a speaker who hasn't kept up with the ebb and flow of political correctness in this country, the actual substance of his remarks was focused on how Obama would be received by the American electorate--and it's probably true that if Obama were dramatically different in either his appearance or his speech from the mainstream template of a public figure in this country, he couldn't have been elected to the presidency. As for dialect, it would be perfectly reasonable not to elect someone who used the word "honkie" on a routine basis to the highest office in the land; less reasonable but no less real would be our tendency not to vote for someone whose speech patterns didn't fall pretty much within the boundaries of "media standard" English, whether the speech was racially divisive in its nature or not. As for color, it's almost certainly true that every degree of difference from the old Crayola version of "flesh"--since redubbed "peach"--is going to cost a candidate votes in America; it's not something to be proud of as an American, but it's no less true for that.
As for the specious comparisons with Trent Lott--there's a world of difference between observing that someone who looked and sounded really divergent from mainstream white America would be hard-put to win a national office, and getting all nostalgic and wistful about Strom Thurmond's version of Jim Crow and apartheid. The first is a realpolitik assessment of how things are, however out of touch the terminology; the second is retroactively rooting for a version of how things ought to be that includes the direct oppression and ostracism of tens of millions of American citizens. Harry Reid's remarks acknowledged racism in America; Trent Lott's endorsed it.
Robert Crawford
Perhaps?
Not perhaps what a declining empire looks and sounds like. It IS what a declining empire looks and sounds like.
You Hit Yhis One On The Head
You hit this one on the head Mr. Carpenter. Unfortunately most Americans will sit back down in front of the TV and stick another beer in their mouth and pretend that they are water coolers! So much for a concerened citizenry!
Another outrage, another symptom of Carpy decline
Of course, the RepubliKKKans are right, but for all the wrong reasons. Carpy is wrong, again as usual, but for all the Right reasons.
Reid certainly does need to resign, but not for making molehill sized racist remarks. He should have been forced to resign three years ago when he committed a mountain of mutiny against the voters who voted for change when he commanded with the jaw dropping statment that the first priority of the new 2007 Congress would be to fund the Iraqi war with another SEVENTY-FIVE BILLION DOLLARS!!!
Of course, his outrage was not to be out done by Nancy Pelosi's jaw dropping outrage when she committed mutiny against the voters for change by commanding, "impeachment is off the table."
For those two outrageous commands (and they were commands and not requests), they both should have been forced to resign in shame, if it were not for the complacency and Memento memories of wee the sheeple who continue to support and reelect Blue Dog DINO-Fascists and expect them to magically transform into Progressive Democrats when sworn into office.
The Democrats, of course, are not the party of racism, as evidenced by the vast number of non-white members and supporters (actually former), it is indeed the RepubliKKKans who are overt racists.
But except for a few Progressive Democrats and Independents, both parties are indeed the Unitary Party of Fascism, the equal opportunity thief of our Constitutional Rights, not to mention the equal opportunity thief of the wealth of the middle class. Both parties need to resign enmasse and in shame. Their lack of morality for not doing so is yet another outrage.
The Teabaggers now have at least 16 candidates running against Republican incumbants in this year's Republican Primaries. Yet to counter the Blue Dog DINO-Fascist incumbants in this year's Democratic Primaries, the Progressive Democrats are running a grand total number of challengers that add up to ZERO!!!
But that is not the greatest outrage. WE THE PEOPLE continue to allow ourselves to be fooled by these minions of the upper 1% plutocratic fascists. We continue to do nothing to prevent this formerly greatest country on earth to be led down the pathway to repeat the exact same mistakes made by the citizens of 1933 Germany.
THIS IS THE GREATEST OUTRAGE OF ALL!!!
Welcome to Idiocracy
Speaking of "outrage", the shouting match between DINOs and GOPs, including the MSM and their shouting heads, is just a show and is as entertaining and real as a chair throwing studio wrestling match. Obama and his Congressional DINO minions have proved that over the past year by bringing us change that remains the same we just can't believe in, while the GOPs shout at the DINOs for not changing the change the GOP previously didn't change.
The upper 1% plutocratic fascists don't care which party is in power, just as long as enough Blue Dog DINO-Fascist Democrats and Neocon-Fascist Republicans continue to pass legislation mostly for the benefit of the glorious overlord class, instead of for us unwashed WE THE PEOPLE serfs.
Carpy, have you considered upping the outrage by throwing a few chairs for instance?
It's really sad when fake studio wrestling is more real and less outrageous than fake, outrageous U.S. political discourse.
Blaming Murkins for being obsessed with triva
is the equivalent of blaming passengers on the gambling bus to Jersey for the drunken driver who crashes off a bridge overpass or the wheel that falls off on the turnpike at 80 mph...
The villain is, as always, the corporate media. The purpose of a system is what it does. The purpose of the USer CorpoRat media is to distract the people from the crimes of the Owners. Works perfectly...
The Washington Bubble
What we have to worry about is that, the GOP having launched their noise machine against Reid, the MSM will amplify that noise until the Whitehouse finds the illusion of noise unbearable and insists on Reid's resignation.
So far the Whitehouse has resisted this, but they have little real contact with the popular mood. Those trapped within the Washinton bubble seem to believe what they read in their papers and hear on the network news; if what they are hearing is that the voters are sufficiently insensed about this issue, they will act to that. It has nothing to do with the actual mood of the voters, it is the illusion presented by the MSM that is critical.